RPL 25

Chapter 25

“Yes, I am Your Majesty’s wife and the empress of this empire. Even if I, in my love for my child, may have somewhat forgotten fairness, how could I have treated an imperial member who is Your Majesty’s child carelessly?”

Cayenne took one step back. To avoid Ranut’s touch.

Then she picked up a few documents from the desk where she had been sitting until just now.

“Look. Even now I was in the middle of selecting maids for Princess Reijina.”

Ranut neither reached out a hand nor sent a glance toward the documents Cayenne was holding.

Cayenne likewise soon lowered the hand holding the documents, as if she had not even expected anything.

“Your Majesty must trust me. As Your Majesty said, am I not Your Majesty’s wife?”

At those words Ranut let out a short snort of laughter.

This time it was the newspaper’s fault. She was truly a tiresome woman.

“I, you see,”

Ranut said while looking at Cayenne, who was wearing a smile that was as formal as a picture.

“am a man who has already stained his hands with the blood of one who was empress and wife.”

“…!”

The face of Cayenne, who had been smiling, stiffened in an instant.

Ranut continued speaking with a sneer.

“What do you expect from a man who, even if she is his wife, will mercilessly put her on the execution platform if she becomes a harm to the empire?”

“……”

“If you ascended to that position even after seeing my blood-stained hands, do not expect something like trust from me.”

Leaving Cayenne’s rigidly stiffened face behind, Ranut turned his back.

‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Iellie.’

Ranut bit his lip with a distorted face.

Whether he had been deceived by someone or not, Iellie’s death was a truth created by his own hands with no room for excuse.

If it was a truth like a brand that would never disappear, was there a problem with using it to attack that woman?

But even so, it was not as if it did not pain him to have lightly spat out Iellie’s death.

“Ah.”

Ranut, who had quickly composed his expression, turned his body as if there was something he had failed to say.

“By tomorrow, assign maids to Princess Reijina and set and provide a maintenance allowance. If you do not wish to be pointed at while being called a true stepmother.”

—

“I’ll allow you to assign people to serve me.”

“If you don’t want to be called a wicked stepmother, you should at least do that much, right?”

—

‘Who would deny they are father and daughter.’

At the shadow of Reijina flickering behind Ranut’s back, Cayenne relaxed her stiffened face and let out a short laugh.

But unlike Reijina’s words, which had only been amusing, Ranut’s words carried force.

If Cayenne violated the deadline, Ranut would impose punishment on Cayenne.

‘That punishment would become supporting evidence that I truly abused Reijina.’

If that happened, her authority as empress would fall to the ground, and her power would shrink.

“Understood.”

Cayenne, who had wiped all laughter from her face, answered in a cold voice.

“There will not be a second time.”

Ranut, who had been standing with his arms crossed leaning against the doorframe, spoke.

“Please do not act rashly.”

He twisted up one corner of his mouth, left those words, and headed toward the corridor.

“Your Majesty.”

The moment Ranut came outside, Kashas immediately held out a handkerchief.

Ranut, who accepted the handkerchief as if he had been waiting, wiped the hand that had touched Cayenne’s body.

“Is it not ridiculous?”

At Ranut’s question, Kashas signaled with his eyes to the palace people following behind and made them move far away.

“If he were a mere commoner, he could turn his eyes upside down and get angry over his child’s matter with only circumstantial evidence. Yet an emperor cannot even get angry without exact evidence.”

The reason Ranut had been unable to press Cayenne about the matter of Reijina’s confinement was because there was no evidence.

“An emperor is worse than a commoner.”

“I apologize, Your Majesty. If I had investigated more thoroughly…”

“There is no need to apologize, as those were not words meant to place blame.”

Ranut handed the handkerchief to Kashas.

‘That woman will also be wiping her cheek clean.’

Ranut and Cayenne. They knew each other well.

Because Ranut suspected Cayenne, and because Cayenne had struggled to escape Ranut’s suspicion.

That was why, ridiculously enough, they knew each other well.

‘If I show anger over Reijina’s matter and specially treat that child…’

Recalling the reaction Cayenne would show, Ranut let out a hollow laugh.

‘If it is Cayenne, whose eyes are bloodshot with the desire to place her own child on the throne, she will become thoroughly venomous and try to do something to Reijina.’

Knowing that, Ranut had shown Cayenne a thoroughly characteristic side of himself.

The side that held the emperor’s authority in dreadful regard.

‘If there is no justification to punish Cayenne, it would be better to handle matters in a direction where at least Reijina will no longer suffer at Cayenne’s hands.’

And now that Ranut had shown the side that held the emperor’s authority in dread and had constrained Cayenne to the empress’s seat, Cayenne would absolutely never be able to act rashly from now on.

Meanwhile, Cayenne, who remained in the room, was wiping her cheek with a handkerchief as if scraping it.

“Your Majesty. You will injure yourself.”

Cayenne’s maid, Novella, restrained such actions of Cayenne in a worried voice.

“Prepare a bath.”

Cayenne spoke without stopping her movements.

Even if the makeup was wiped away and her skin turned red and hot, Cayenne did not care.

It was better to peel off the skin than to leave filthy filth stuck to it.

“Your Majesty…”

Even at Cayenne’s order, Novella only stamped her feet.

Because Cayenne’s cheek looked as if it would bleed at any moment.

“Where did it go wrong?”

At Novella’s continued worry, Cayenne removed her hand from her cheek and muttered.

“Ranut is not that kind of person.”

Ranut was a busy person for the sake of this empire that he cherished.

Moreover, he had no interest in Reijina, whom he had no intention of leaving the throne to.

One could tell just by looking at how he treated Kiseira.

The idea that such a Ranut would go out of his way to make time to visit Reijina’s palace and check whether there were palace people there or not was nonsense.

‘If he were that kind of person, he would have visited the castle where Reijina was confined at least once.’

Cayenne stared blankly down at the floor and her eyes shone sharply.

“Someone brought Reijina right under Ranut’s nose.”

By digging out the secrets of Cayenne’s palace and tipping that matter off to a newspaper.

In that way they had clearly moved the emperor, who had no interest in Reijina but was sensitive to imperial family problems.

“Novella. There is something you need to do for me.”

“Just give the order.”

Listening to Novella’s loyal words, Cayenne turned her head and looked down at the documents placed on the desk.

She did not know who that someone was, but if Ranut was coming out like this, she had to change her plans.

***

“In what way is treatment for mental problems carried out?”

I asked Renheimer, who was sitting opposite me, while holding back a yawn.

‘Since I have a personal physician now, I should use him usefully.’

The most urgent matter for me right now was the treatment of trauma.

There were many things I wanted to ask, starting from the state of my teeth to disease problems, but because drowsiness kept pouring down, today I planned to find out only the most necessary things for now.

“Systematic treatment methods for mental illnesses have not yet been introduced. For a long time they were misunderstood as being possessed by demons…”

While listening to Renheimer’s explanation, I lowered my eyes. Because my eyelids were extremely heavy.

“Are you perhaps feeling unwell?”

When I raised my lowered eyes, Renheimer with a worried face came into view.

It seemed that my appearance of forcibly holding back drowsiness looked as if I were in pain somewhere.

‘I should put it off until next time.’

I had thrown out the question because I wanted to resolve the trauma problem right away.

But because of the sleepiness I couldn’t concentrate, and from listening to Renheimer’s words for a moment it did not seem as if there was a method to treat mental problems.

“No. I’m just a little tired. Next time…”

It was the moment I was about to tell Renheimer that we should talk again next time.

Once again a knock was heard from the door.

‘What. Why do they keep coming one after another.’

Maids had come, a doctor had come. Who would come next?

‘Whatever it is, as long as it’s as useful as the maids or the doctor…!’

Through the door Nea opened, men and women in uniforms began entering one after another.

At that sight I stopped thinking and furrowed my brow.

They looked exactly like knights, so why had knights—not just one or two, but around fifteen—come looking for me?

‘D-don’t tell me an arrest? Confinement again?’

Had the emperor met me and become displeased somehow!

So had he ordered me arrested and confined again!

‘If I had known I was going to be confined anyway, I would have poured out a stream of curses at the emperor and driven him out.’

I ground my teeth as I watched the knights who had entered the room line up with their backs to the wall.

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

It was then. The middle-aged man who entered last offered me a greeting.

At the same time the knights who had lined up also bent their waists toward me with disciplined movements.

“I am Viscount Teson. His Majesty the Emperor has entrusted me with the task of assigning escort knights to Your Highness, so I have come like this.”

“Escort… knights?”

“That is correct.”

At the unexpected situation I opened my mouth wide and scanned the lined-up knights.

In the meantime, Viscount Teson’s words continued.

“You may select the knights you desire from among these. You may take them all as escorts, or if you wish, you may summon other knights or add more.”

‘What?’

In fact, neither maids nor a personal physician were familiar existences to me.

It was just that, since I currently lacked the ability to care for myself, the gladness had been greater than the unfamiliarity.

‘But escorts. More than ten men and women in splendid knight uniforms protecting me.’

It was truly enormously burdensome. To the point that cold sweat broke out on my back.

“Your Highness.”

Viscount Teson called me.

“It is only natural for Your Highness to receive the protection of escort knights. So please accept them.”

Looking at the way Viscount Teson was saying such things, it seemed that the thought that it was burdensome had been fully revealed on my face.

‘Escort knights. Having them is better than not having them, right?’

That did not mean I was going to take all those people as escorts.

Wouldn’t one or two be enough?

‘By the way, until yesterday I was all alone, but suddenly my surroundings have become bustling…’

While slowly scanning the inside of the room, I suddenly hardened my face at a realization that came to me.

‘I’m screwed?’

The reason I had chosen this castle was to find and use the countless secret passages that existed in this castle.

But when I came to my senses, the situation was that my surroundings were swarming with watchers—exclusive maids, a personal physician, and on top of that escort knights.

At this rate, the plan to find the secret passages and escape was as good as washed away.